Like a Google search engine in their brains: how ‘super’ memory gives a handful of people total recall of what they did and what happened on a given day

A tiny number of people have what scientists call a highly superior autobiographical memory. It gives them instant recall of a day – what they did, with whom

One, comedian Bob Petrella, says it’s almost as if ‘my eyes and mind are a camera’; actress Marilu Henner recalls the first time she wore every pair of shoes

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Bob Petrella, a stand-up comedian, and Taxi actress Marilu Henner are among a tiny number of people known to have “super” memory. It gives them almost instant recall of what they did, with whom, of smells and tastes, what they wore, and of world events on any given day. Photo: Bob Petrella; Getty Images

Published: 7:15am, 28 Dec 2022Updated: 1:19pm, 30 Dec 2022

What days of your life can you recall? How about in Technicolor detail?

I remember the day I got married – bits of it. I remember details about the days my children were born – the pain of labour, naturally, and how long each took to arrive. And I remember the day my father died, and who told me. But I can’t identify specific details of random dates.

I can’t tell you what I did, or what news events occurred, on May 16, 1993, for example, or September 29, 2012, or any other day.

Jill Price can. The author of the memoir The Woman Who Can’t Forget wrote to James McGaugh, a distinguished professor emeritus at the Center for the Neurobiology of Learning and Memory at the University of California, to tell him about her unusual capacity.

Jill Price poses for a portrait in Central Park, New York, in 2008 prior to the release of her book on hyperthymesia, “The Woman Who Can’t Forget”. Photo: Karjean Levine/Getty Images

“I am 34 years old, and since I was 11, I have had this unbelievable ability to recall my past. I can take a date, between 1974 and today, and tell you what day it falls on, what I was doing that day, and, if anything of great importance occurred on that day, I can describe that to you as well.”

American actress Marilu Henner can do this, too.